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Quality Assurance Council (Qac) Audit of Lingnan Univeristy 2016 Progress Report

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Quality Assurance Council (Qac) Audit of Lingnan Univeristy 2016 Progress Report QUALITY ASSURANCE COUNCIL (QAC) AUDIT OF LINGNAN UNIVERISTY 2016 PROGRESS REPORT Submitted to University Grants Committee April 2018 LINGNAN UNIVERSITY Quality Assurance Council (QAC) Audit 2016 Progress Report Lingnan University (LU) is appreciative of the QAC’s recognition of our efforts in a number of areas, including the mission sensitive approach of the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC); our efforts to provide a rich and rigorous variety of learning experiences and services aimed at improving and enhancing student achievement. The University is also gratified to receive the QAC’s general endorsement of LU’s Integrated Learning Programme and its sustained approach to internationalisation. LU also appreciates the constructive suggestions made by the Audit Panel regarding how the University can further enhance its teaching and learning environment and student experiences. The University has diligently followed up the recommendations and affirmations of the quality audit contained in the Audit Report published in October 2016 by submitting an Action Plan in January 2017 setting out the objectives and planned actions with an implementation time-frame for each of the recommendations and affirmations. What follows is an account of progress made against each of the recommendations and affirmations. A summary of progress of the various action items is given in the Annex. Executive Summary in the Audit Report 1. The report encourages the University to identify and implement the most effective means of promoting enhancement of learning and teaching by disseminating good practice across the institution consistently and systematically. (point (g) in Executive Summary on p.4) 1.1 To disseminate good practices on teaching and learning across the institution consistently and systematically, the University has incorporated an existing webpage for sharing of good practices on teaching and learning into a new online teaching and learning portal (T&L portal) to be launched in May 2018. The new platform will contain a repository of best practices, including successful teaching and learning projects as well as pedagogical initiatives carried out by academics together with a related list of resources, instructional technology and associated training materials. Among others, 13 showcase videos of good practices will be accessible on the portal. Furthermore, more video shootings are in the pipeline. 1.2 To provide an incentive to academics to share good practices, the Teaching Excellence Awards Scheme (TEAS) has included “contribution to sharing of good practices” as one of the selection criteria of the Scheme from the 2017-18 academic year. Teaching Development Grant (TDG) holders and University’s TEAS recipients are required to share their expertise and good practices with effect from the 2017-18 academic year. The “sharing sessions” will be accessible to all stakeholders via the new portal. 1.3 There are two initiatives that address best practices in teaching and learning: first, the Staff 1 Induction Programme, under which new faculty members are introduced to the teaching and learning approach appropriate to a liberal arts environment and; second, the Learning and Teaching Development Programme (LTDP) which provides a seven-month professional development programme designed to familiarise new teachers (with less than 3 years’ experience) with the latest development in tertiary level pedagogy and best practices. The LTDP Programme is also open to all faculty wishing to hone their teaching skills. Both the Staff Induction and the LTDP take place annually. 1.4 A list of quality assurance and quality enhancement related programmes, workshops and seminars organised/planned in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years is shown in Appendix 1. The Setting and Maintaining of Academic Standards 2. The report suggests LU articulate the way academic standards are set explicitly in its academic quality policies and procedures. The report encourages the University to consider further enhancing confidence in its academic standards by benchmarking them against local, regional and international comparator institutions. (point (b) in Executive Summary on p. 2, section 2.2 on p.8 and section 2.14 on p.11) 2.1 The University has provided clear policy and guidance to make sure that these are implemented through the wide spectrum of the quality assurance processes -- from curriculum development and design to programme monitoring and internal/external review. In order to better articulate how academic standards are explicitly set with external benchmarking, the Working Group on Academic Standards was established to review the existing programme quality assurance and enhancement mechanisms. Its recommendations were reviewed by the Academic Quality Assurance Committee for Undergraduate and Sub- degree Programmes (AQAC) and the Postgraduate Studies Committee (PSC) for adoption among undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) programmes respectively. As a result of the review (over which the Senate has oversight), a number of enhancements have been approved for implementation beginning the 2017-18 academic year, which include: a) recognising that the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (HKQF) constitutes a significant external reference, the HKQF will be embedded in the quality assurance and enhancement mechanisms by including a mapping between the Programme Intended Learning Outcomes (PILOs) and the relevant Generic Level Descriptors (GLDs) of the HKQF in the validation of new programmes and the five-year programme review system; b) to enhance benchmarking by engaging additional faculty from regional and international comparator institutions, specifically, one external member of a programme validation or five-year programme review panel, and one of the two External Academic Advisers (EAAs) appointed for a discipline/programme will be selected from one of the approved benchmarking institutions where possible. Moreover, the EAAs will be invited to join 2 meetings of the programme reviews as far as practicable; and c) to give even greater emphasis to academic standards, programmes will reflect the University’s articulation of its academic standards in their design and the extent to which this articulation is accurately reflected in the programmes, as an aspect of validation and five-year programme reviews. 2.2 The following guidelines have been revised to reflect the approved enhancements: a) Initiation of New Programmes, Validation and Approval for Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Programmes in Appendix 2*; b) Guidelines and Procedures for Five-year Programme Review in Appendix 3; and c) Policy on External Academic Advisers of Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Programmes in Appendix 4. 2.3 In the 2017-18 academic year, the BA (Hons) Contemporary English Studies programme is undergoing the five-year programme review, and the BSc (Hons) Data Science programme, MA in Translation Studies programme, MSc in International and Development Economics programme and the Doctor of Policy Studies programme are undergoing new programme validation. Extracts from the review/validation documents are presented in Appendix 5 – which provide information about their mapping between PILOs and GLDs of the HKQF, and their reflection on University’s articulation of its academic standards in the programmes. 2.4 The AQAC and the PSC will ensure the implementation of the measures at the UG and PG levels respectively and evaluate them after one round of five-year programme reviews in 2021-2022 and 2023-2024 respectively. 2.5 Please refer to Section 15 for more details on benchmarking. 3. The report encourages the University to ensure that moderation mechanisms are in place to check that academic standards are regularly and rigorously maintained and monitored at course level, as an integral part of the assessment process. (point (b) in Executive Summary on p.3 and section 2.9 on p.10) 3.1 To strengthen course moderation mechanisms and to assure academic standards are regularly and rigorously maintained and monitored at course level consistent with the Outcome-based Approach to Teaching and Learning (OBATL), and in light of the feedback from academic units and factoring-in the practices of sister institutions, the University will implement the following for undergraduate programmes with effect from the 2018-19 academic year: a) For courses that are taught by more than one teacher, the teachers are now required to have meeting(s) in order to develop a common understanding of the assessment rubrics prior to the marking of all scripts. b) The Board of Examiners (BoE) shall make professional judgements in deciding if there is an anomaly in the grade distribution of a course. If and when there is an apparent anomaly in the grade distribution of a course, the BoE will invite course 3 *submitted for QAC’s reference only teachers/coordinators to provide an explanation to the BoE and submit sample scripts and assessment rubrics so that the BoE can make judgements if the grading was done fairly and consistently. If the BoE confirms the existence of an anomaly, it will invite Head of Department (HoD) to form a panel to moderate the marking and make recommendations. c) Each academic unit may select two courses for review every year. The review will involve the head of unit, its academic staff, and the respective course teacher/coordinator. They will review together the complete set of course materials (such as assessment rubrics, assignments/tests/examination papers and samples of work). The review
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